57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy, X-ray single-crystal diffractometry, and electronic structure calculations on natural sinhalites

Natural sinhalites, MgAlBO4, from the Ratnapura District, Sri Lanka, and from Bodnar Quarry near Hamburg, Sussex Co., New Jersey, USA, have been characterized by Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy, electron microprobe, X-ray single-crystal diffractometry and by electronic structure calculations in order to determine the oxidation state and site occupancy of iron in the sinhalite structure. The samples contain about 3.35 and 1.46 wt% of total iron oxide, respectively. The structure refinement is successful and reproduces the total iron content provided that the substitution of Mg2+ by Fe2+ on the M2 position only is assumed. The Fe-57 Mossbauer spectra at 77, 293, 573 and 773 K can be resolved into two doublets with hyperfine parameters common for octahedrally coordinated high-spin Fe2+. There is no evidence for iron in the tetrahedral site. Electronic structure calculations in local spin density approximation yield hyperfine parameters for Fe2+ on the M2-site at 0, 293, 573 and 773 K in quantitative agreement with experiments. Calculated spectroscopic properties for Fe2+ on the M1-site are at variance with the experimental data and, thus, indicate that substitution of Al3+ by Fe2+, if occurring at all, must be accompanied by considerable local expansion and distortion of the M1-octahedron.